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Tuesday, 12 April 2016

12/04/16

Walked for 8hrs straight round the Docks today!

The Morpeth and Egerton Dock hit it right off today with Morpeth having 2 Shelduck, 2 Cormorant and 2 Canada Geese, with Egerton not far behind with also 2 Shelduck along with 2 Mallard. All birds were in pairs.

Shelduck

The East Float produced 11 Great crested Grebe all in one flock with 5 birds taking off and flying SE, with 1 bird coming back in onto the float. There a very high count of 16 Shelduck on the float (all paired) which is by far the highest count for the East Float. There was also 8 Canada Geese around with 6 Cormorant and 4 Mallard on the Float with 6 Oystercatcher roosting in front of the Clock Tower. The Lapwings were also still present and on the nests with no sign of the Plovers.

Courting Great crested Grebe

Oystercatchers

Great crested Grebe

The Gull Roost also had a high count of Shelduck today with 14 birds, surprisingly only 4 Pied Wagtail today with no White's. Gull numbers were 250c (mainly Herring) but just 1 Great Black-backed Gull. 1 Sparrowhawk also flew over head West.

Bidston was were the majority of todays birds were with 2 Shelduck on the Recycling plant roof!!! With leaf warblers in every single available piece of vegetation with totals of 37 Willow Warbler and 21 Chiffchaff. This is including counts from the Pools. The Main Lake had hold of its breeding Mute Swans and Great crested Grebe with 4 Tufted Duck also on the lake with 1 calling Little Grebe.

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

A walk round to the Pools produced a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a *Stock Dove*, with at the Pools them selves Canada Geese numbers were low with 8 Birds and some on nests. There were also 2 Little Grebe calling on separate Pools with the Birket having a single Cormorant (carbo). Also to note was a Tawny Owl pellet which was in the centre of the path leading underneath the road going to the Main site. Flying over the Pools were 5 Sand Martin and 2 Swallow giving good clear views.

Walking back to Bidston and visiting grassland resulted with 2 Bullfinch (pair) in the bushes, the long staying "Green" Pheasant and 3 Swallow were doing a small feedings circuit.

"Green" Pheasant

Walking down to Seacombe didn't produce anything new but t Seacombe 3 Turnstone and 2 Redshank were roosting on the Ferry Terminal and a drake COMMON SCOTER flew past heading out of the Mersey with a single Swallow flying over to Liverpool.